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Something very strange happened today at The Valley.....

My son was 4 years old when we moved from Manchester area to Suffolk and always been a Man Utd fan (I moved to Cheshire as a 20 year old from Eltham with my work where I met my beloved and settled).

I took him to his first game at Old Trafford when he was seven years old - was vs Chelsea and we had the pleasure of seeing the likes of Giggs (you had to see him live to appreciate how fast he was, running with a ball glued to his feet), Keane, Beckham, Zola, Tore Andre Flo and many more.He has been a staunch United fan since day 1.

We have had season tickets at The Valley for the past 3 seasons since he left Uni and moved to Balham and we meet up for every home game.

Last Saturday he went to the MK Dons game with a mate and I thought, hello, where’s this going.

Today, at half time, he made a stark admission that he’s losing interest in Man Utd as he rarely gets chance to watch them these days and so enjoys the atmosphere of live football in London.

I saw my first game at The Valley when I was a real youngster a long, long time ago - was a 2-0 home win vs Ipswich Town.

So, my son today, bearing in mind he was not born in the area, actually admits he has moved his adoration from Man Utd to Charlton - I have obviously done a very good job in converting him but, in reality, it is the vibe of the Valley, live footie and accepting that we are not the best, by a long way and cannot afford a squad costing millions that appears to have done the job.

My son was 4 years old when we moved from Manchester area to Suffolk and always been a Man Utd fan (I moved to Cheshire as a 20 year old from Eltham with my work where I met my beloved and settled).

I took him to his first game at Old Trafford when he was seven years old - was vs Chelsea and we had the pleasure of seeing the likes of Giggs (you had to see him live to appreciate how fast he was, running with a ball glued to his feet), Keane, Beckham, Zola, Tore Andre Flo and many more.He has been a staunch United fan since day 1.

We have had season tickets at The Valley for the past 3 seasons since he left Uni and moved to Balham and we meet up for every home game.

Last Saturday he went to the MK Dons game with a mate and I thought, hello, where’s this going.

Today, at half time, he made a stark admission that he’s losing interest in Man Utd as he rarely gets chance to watch them these days and so enjoys the atmosphere of live football in London.

I saw my first game at The Valley when I was a real youngster a long, long time ago - was a 2-0 home win vs Ipswich Town.

So, my son today, bearing in mind he was not born in the area, actually admits he has moved his adoration from Man Utd to Charlton - I have obviously done a very good job in converting him but, in reality, it is the vibe of the Valley, live footie and accepting that we are not the best, by a long way and cannot afford a squad costing millions that appears to have done the job.

Sounds a similar story to how I began supporting Charlton (only I've always lived rather local)

Good on him for slowly turning into an Addick

I was wondering whether I’d been the only one with a similar tale. Although born in Sidcup, I was a Man United fan until 2003 due to an uncle having season tickets at OT and indoctrinating me there with 2-3 games a season whilst my father failed to push me towards one team (when he was a lad, he’d alternate between Charlton and Palarse home games depending who was at home so my formative years trod a similar path through the cheap tickets offered to school kids by both clubs).

The opening of the North Stand, a cracking team and the chance to actually see some of the best players in the world every fortnight (as opposed to irregularly at OT) pushed me into getting season tickets in the North Upper with my schoolmates in my early teens and I have never looked back (despite performances over the last decade).

Huge respect for your lad, it was far easier to see sense back then with the team and profile of opponents we had.

(Thank god my first ever football match in person was Charlton 4 - Southend 3 back in 1994 rather than a Nigels match. Funnily enough my main memory is seeing SCP at right back for Southend. It was all written in the stars)